How to meditate in 2016: A complete guide

Note: This is a long post, almost e-book length, but if you decide to read it through, you’ll get all tips on how to meditate properly you need to establish a long-term meditation practice.

2015 was a packed year for me. I worked hard at my day job as the CMO of a start-up, Kerry and I got pregnant again even as Leela became a walking, talking hurricane, I launched The Seeker as a bestseller in India while editing THE YOGA OF MAX’S DISCONTENT, my first international novel to be published by Random House in 2016. All good stuff but a lot of it at once. Through all of this, knowing how to meditate for 30 minutes in the morning and evening helped me keep my sanity. Really. Without meditation, I’d probably be a nervous mess but for the most part, I felt reasonably calm and unhurried through the year. That’s why I’ve developed some strong views on how to meditate and meditation’s benefits and often take offense (a gentle Buddhist offense!) to some of its popular avatars. Why, for instance, are most meditation teachers slender, dreadlocked hippies with loose, flowing clothes who talk about “feeling your vibrations”, “finding your energy fields” and “letting go” rather than serious seekers who’ve burnt in the fire of asking “Who am I?”, “Why was the world created?”, “What lies behind the predictable cycle of birth and death?”, and other such questions again and again to the silent, uncaring universe, eventually finding their only answer in meditation? One new age guru offers a meditation-of-the-month if I sign up for her program kind of like an ice-cream of the month club, another sells a $299 Bluetooth enabled meditation headband to connect me with my “head chakra”, and so on. I’m sure there’s a kernel of truth in all this hyperbole but my experience with meditation has been far simpler so I wanted to share tips on how to meditate properly with people who’re first entering the bewildering mindfulness marketplace:

First off, here are my experiences with meditation.

Call it past lives (which I believe in due to very scientific reasons—a subject for another post) or just innate inclination; I’ve been pulled to Eastern mysticism since my engineering college days. The pull intensified during B-School and I did my first Vipassana meditation course then. But I’ve truly learnt how to meditate in the last five years, much of it during Kerry and my year off where we did multiple Vipassana courses in Italy and India, a month long Hatha Yoga Teacher’s training in Madurai, and lived in a village high in the Himalayas for a few months pretty much in silence. What prompted the deep dive? Honestly, I was just sick of how superficial my life was. I’d go to office and try to muster up enthusiasm to gain a couple of market share points for the brands I led as a Director for a consumer products company. The stuff that occupied friends and family—houses, restaurants, kids schools etc.—felt completely insignificant to me. More importantly, I was deeply frustrated by how inconsistent I was, one moment I was reading the Upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita, the next moment I was worried about being promoted from Director to Senior Director at work or mulling over someone who hadn’t shown me full respect at a dinner and other BS like that. Seeing my mother die from cancer and having a very visceral understanding of how short and futile life was had something to do with it or perhaps it was just living in New York. I don’t fully understand. All I know was I wanted to truly silence my chaotic mind and that’s what we set out to do in our sabbatical in 2012. Since then, I’ve meditated every day, sometimes for 30 minutes, sometime for much longer, and have had enough discernible changes in my life that I think I know how to meditate and that meditation works.

Now, let’s define meditation.

Again, this is something clouded in a lot of hyperbole but if you read The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or The Dhammapada or any other ancient Buddhist or Yogic text, a very clear definition emerges. Meditation is the complete dissolution of your sense of self. In true meditation, your intellect, your ego, your chattering mind, your whole concept of “I am” is extinguished completely. What’s left is Brahman, the universal consciousness, according to yoga-vedanta, shunyata or nothingness, according to Buddhism, Tao, according to Taoism, and a million other concepts, all pointing to the same indefinable, absolute reality (vs. our limited conditioned experience). Call it what you will, I’m with the Buddha when he asks us to first reach that point of complete dissolution, the liberation from the prison of our hapless thoughts, before worrying about what happens after.

How do you reconcile meditation with ambition?

If dissolving the self is the goal, then isn’t it counter to one’s ambition to grow through working, living etc.? Will I lose my edge? Actually, no. Meditation isn’t teaching you not to work. Rather you’re learning to become just a medium for your work to express itself. With your mind no longer possessed by a thousand petty thoughts about yourself, what you like, what you dislike etc., your work happens through you not because of you. Or in the words of the oft-quoted Bhagavad Gita imperative, you work full-heartedly without personal attachment to the results of the work.

Does meditation truly work?

Barely for the 1st six months. Then, you start noticing small changes and in about three years, you’ll be a completely different person. Here are some tangible things that’ve changed for me since I learnt how to meditate:

Sleep: Pre meditation, I was an anxious sleeper who’d lose sleep in stressful times. Literally. I couldn’t sleep for days after going through the break-up of a six year old relationship. I’d toss and turn all night before important presentations at work. You could find me jogging often at midnight. Now, I sleep a deep, dreamless sleep for seven hours straight the moment I finish meditating for thirty minutes at night. I could lose all my money (or worse lose all my writing since I’m terrible at backing up regularly) and I wouldn’t lose a second of sleep.

Honesty: This one is a hard one to explain. I’ve never been dishonest per-se but I was used to cutting corners, mostly in petty, laughable ways. For instance, I’d stand in the Business Class line in an airport if the Economy Class line was too crowded and say “I’m a platinum member of Star Alliance” or something like that. Less than saving time, it was about the thrill of beating the system, a phenomenon I’ve seen with many of us who grew up in the developing world. Now, I can’t anymore. Everything that doesn’t seem radically honest feels wrong. Not by any deliberate intention, it’s just a spontaneous choice from within.

Patience: By far, the biggest one. If I don’t meditate for even a day, I can see an immediate difference in how my thoughts start rushing. As a result, I interrupt people, finish their sentences, judge them as slow and incompetent, and in general, am all round insufferable. I don’t turn into an angel with meditation but I’m better. Just a little. And it’s not just emotional patience, it pervades every aspect of life. Earlier, for instance, any kind of noise would bother me. I’d be impatient with people snoring in a hostel dorm room or the noise of trucks or trams outside my window while traveling (shameful for a committed budget traveler like me). Now, my mind just notes, “a loud sound”. And I turn around and go back to sleep.

Diet/Weight/Energy: Within a year of starting meditation, I quit alcohol and caffeine and became a vegetarian. As a result, I’ve lost twenty pounds and doubled my energy. I’m not saying this is the “right” thing to do. If a Paleo diet or two glasses of wine a day works for you, that’s great. All these diet changes happened spontaneously without any active attempt on my side. These choices came from within me because they felt right for my body and my mind; the habits quit me rather than me quitting them, as it were.

How to meditate: the complete guide.

I have very strong views on how to mediate mainly because almost all the advice I read on the Internet when I was first trying to to learn meditation was wrong. Or rather incomplete. I’m a rational soul. I don’t want to be told to repeat So Hum when I breathe or mutter some “secret personal mantra” which means nothing to me. Nor do I fully comprehend wishy-washy instructions like “just be present and let go”. The ashrams in India weren’t more helpful because they all had special instructions taught by their patron Gurus, most of whom in all honesty didn’t strike me as particularly enlightened. Or maybe I just wasn’t ready as a student for the right teacher to arrive. So eventually I learned by reading everything from the yoga sutras to Vedanta to Zen Buddhism and vipassana text and meditating for hours on my own. Slowly, it began to work. The concepts became clearer and my life began to change. We each have to go through our own experimentation but if you want to save months of spinning in circles, this is a summary of what I’ve learnt.
First off, there are only two broad meditation approaches:

Concentration-based meditation.

Awareness-based meditation, popularly called mindfulness.

And in 99% of cases,I strongly recommend starting with a concentration-based approach and slowly it will evolve by itself to an awareness-based approach. First, you dissolve your sense of self by concentration on an external object. As you gain mastery in this approach, your mind will become more and more one-pointed and as a result you’ll become increasingly aware when the familiar scattering of thoughts start to occur. To have this awareness at every moment of the day, to be able to distinguish between the subject (you) and the object (the constant flux of thoughts) spontaneously rather than getting sucked into the maze of your thoughts, is the goal of awareness based meditation—and of life itself.

An image: Anything you feel some affinity for. For instance, I’m a big fan of the Buddha so concentrating on his image worked for me in the beginning. My friend is a musician who concentrates on his guitar.

A mantra: You don’t need a Guru to give you a magic collection of words. Mentally repeating any word or set of words that make sense for you—Om, Buddha, Amen—will do the trick.

There are a variety of other objects—chakras, deities, vision boards, fabric patterns etc. Just understand the basic construct: you are using an object as an aid to shift focus away from yourself and your thoughts. The nature of the object is immaterial; anything that can hold your attention for some length of time works.

How to choose your point of concentration.

A point of concentration will help improve your focus by zoning it into a smaller area. Some recommendations depending on your object of concentration:

If you choose your breath: The area between your upper lips and the tip of your nostrils. Or the contraction and extension of your chest during inhalation and exhalation.

If you choose an image: Visualize the image in the third eye (your forehead between the two eyes) or in your heart. The former works better if you’re more intellectual/analytical, the latter if you consider yourself more emotional.

If you choose a mantra: If you’re saying it aloud, focus on your lips. If you’re repeating it mentally, again focus on either your heart or the space between your eyes.

How to meditate

Posture: The only two characteristics of a good meditation pose are sthira (a pose of attention) and sukha (a pose of comfort). If you’re sitting cross-legged on the floor and your mind is screaming in agony, then it’s not a good pose for you because it’s not sukha. On the other hand, if you’re lying on the bed attempting to meditate, that’ll likely not work as well since it’s not sthira. So choose anything, sitting on a chair, sitting on the bed with your legs stretched, or sitting on a cushion on the floor, anything that allows you to be both comfortable and attentive. I’d just recommend keeping your spine erect for attentiveness and your hips at an elevation to your knees for comfort.

Meditate: Close your eyes to avoid all distractions, straighten your spine, and concentrate on your chosen object at the point of concentration. You’re meditating.

Time: 30 mins/morning, 30 minutes/night. Everyday. In six months, you’ll see noticeable changes on all the dimensions I mentioned above. Any lesser and you’ll be attempting to get into a state of meditation vs. meditating.

Obstacles: Too many to list. There’ll be some external ones—your kids waking up early, a late night at work—but mostly your mind plays havoc. He said that, she failed me, they don’t understand me, I hate him, she loves me, many branched and endless are the thoughts of the unsteady mind. Don’t give up. It’s going to get better soon.

This is what will happen next

Your meditation will evolve by itself. In about six months or a year, my mind went from concentrating on the Buddha’s image to his qualities of determination and compassion by itself as my thoughts became subtler. Soon enough, the image dissolved completely and I started to drift into a more awareness-based meditation. Now I don’t meditate as much as just sit without a timer, without any alarm, just devoid of thought, and I automatically know when thirty minutes are up and it’s time to get up.

How to meditate: What is awareness-based meditation (also called mindfulness)?

In awareness-based meditation, you don’t force your mind to concentrate on any external object. You just observe reality as is. A thought emerges. You note it arise, then you note it pass away. Soon, you become more and more aware of this constant arising and passing of thoughts and a realization dawns deep within you that the whole interplay of thoughts, ideas, “I am this”, “I am that”, is insubstantial, constantly in flux. As a result, you give less and less importance to it and don’t grasp onto every thought, every desire that arises in the mind. This is true meditation because you’re slowly dissolving all concepts of yourself, which is the ultimate goal of meditation.I don’t recommend awareness-based meditation if you’re just starting out. The mind has to be trained to go from scattered to one-pointed before you teach it how to become completely devoid of thought. But if you’re in a hurry to start, here are the steps to begin:

The moment you get distracted and random thoughts start to emerge, just note them. “Now I’m angry because I’m remembering what Mary said at lunch.” “Now I’m worried Michael just doesn’t get the basics of that project.” In your act of noting, they’ll start to disappear. New thoughts will arise. Keep noting them and they’ll pass away too.

If the mind is exceptionally chaotic, just bring your attention back to the breath lightly and repeat Step 2 above.

That’s it. The effects of awareness-based meditation last well beyond the thirty minutes of meditation because you’re training your mind to stay unaffected by the millions of thoughts and distractions that assail you every minute of the day.

Running is not meditation…

…unless you’re zoned into concentrating on just one object, be it your right foot pounding the pavement, or your breath going in and out of your nose, to the exclusion of everything else. If you’re just thoughtless because all your psychic energy is going into the act of running, that’s great but it’s not meditation because you’re not willfully training your mind to become one-pointed or aware. That’s why the effect won’t last beyond the time you run. The same holds true for swimming, dancing, reading, writing or any other activity where you lose yourself for a period of time. Unless you’re consciously training your mind to focus on a singular microscopic activity (concentration based meditation) or to not react to the flurry of thoughts coming and going (awareness based meditation), you aren’t meditating.

Lastly, what’s the point of all this? I’m happy, productive, peaceful, why do I need to learn how to meditate?

Have you ever felt a strange emptiness, as if something indefinable was missing from your grasp even in moments of great achievement?
If yes, meditation is right for you. I won’t delve into mysticism in this post (let’s meet for a cup of tea in New York for that) but meditation originated because early pioneers of the spirit realized that man’s soul cries for the infinite in a finite world, that’s why nothing in the world of people and objects ever truly satisfies us. We all live two lives. The happy, smiling pictures with “I feel blessed” messages we post on Facebook and our own private mental torture chambers. Recognize your reality for what it is and maybe, meditation can bring your two lives closer in 2016. And I’ll be genuinely happy if this guide can be of some use in that quest. Good luck and don’t forget to drop a note in the comments below to let me know if this was helpful or if any part needs more clarification–I’d love to hear from you.

PS: 2016 looks to be another packed year for me with a new book, a new baby, a new business, and maybe a move to a new country. I’ll continue to meditate to keep things simple. Sign up here so we can keep each other honest!

78 Responses to “How to meditate in 2016: A complete guide”

Dear Karan,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful post. I agree with almost all the above mentioned points. It is, as if, I myself is writing this post, as I have experienced these after doing Vipassana. Some of the points I strongly agree with are:
1) I have become more peaceful
2) I have become more honest, though I have never attempted the so-called dishonest methods.
3) The day I couldn’t meditate, I observe a flock of thoughts shaking my stability.
Really thanks for sharing your experiences. Its good to meditate and be stable in our lives. The positive changes (occurring without any deliberate attempt), will inspire other people as well. This will bring peace in their lives, too.

Karan,
Thank you for the clarification. I have wanted to begin meditation for some time, but I couldn’t figure out what meditation truly is or how to actually do it. You have laid it out very simply, and although it will take a lifetime to master, it is no longer seemingly impossible to get started.
You stated that mediating , “(a)ny lesser and you’ll be attempting to get into a state of meditation vs. meditating.” Could you please explain this further?
Thank you.

Sarah, thanks! I meant, just the preparation (sitting down, blocking other thoughts, getting into a rhythm of concentration) takes a few minutes so to get the full benefits of the practice, plan for 30 minutes start to finish. Hope this helps?

Hey Karan, Recently I read your “The Seeker” and I must tell you its really a thought provoking tale. And I feel I’m very fortunate that I read it when I am going through rough patches of my life. I’m looking forward to start meditation through your aforesaid methodology.

Its been great you are teaching others all dimensions and your real experience of spirituality & simple method of meditation , i am sure people will learn from this and find them-self other than daily job by doing meditation & make it lifestyle.

My experience its not zero to infinity journey but from infinity thoughts to zero as neutral journey to awaken your energies from inside , make it simple with organised manner , even this year for so many people its gona be spirituality success year with planets placement in universe , so enjoy it

Excellent read! In this modern world of consumerism where Yoga is losing its true essence, you have been able to see beyond all that facade and grasp the true meaning and significance of the ancient practice.
From what I gathered, the most important thing is perseverance, even if your mind is distracted by million thoughts initially while meditating

Hi! I have just started to meditate and do it by focusing on my breath as you mentioned. I do have many thoughts crossing my mind in between which, when I realise, try and block out by focus on the breath. I am not sure the process and if it is absolutely correct but I do feel calm for some time. No long term effects yet, gets thats going to take some time :). But I do want to clarify if the thoughts do come and go, is that mindful meditation or is it when I am fully conscious at all times of each one coming and going?

Wanted to leave this feedback for some time now! read your book Johnny gone down , completed the book in one sitting. the ethos of doing one’s Karma irrespective of what situation you are in and not worrying about the results is the common thread across( sorry for the jargon), Then read keep of the grass , Looks like the book is inspired by the author’s real life incidents, as matter of fact all your books( just guessing maybe am wrong!) Looks like at this point in time the author was dabbling in the areas of Meditation , yoga.
then bought the seeker, completed it in one sitting. really connect with the character of Max , just doing one’s karma , like a tree out there, just doing ones duty , absolutely dissolved in the almighty, absolute bliss.
On meditation , had practiced Vipassana course in Igatpuri 13 years back. Then keep doing it randomly. Now this is not meditation, agree with you. need to practice it 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the night. Need to practice , practice till i reach the stage of complete dissolution of sense of self . (agree with your views on this). Call it past lives (which I believe in due to very scientific reasons—a subject for another post) -can you share this post …more elaborately on scientific reason ..
looking forward to your new book and hopefully seek your advice to write my book ! when you are in Bangalore( the place has changed in bad way! from the time you have left. You are honest to yourself that i can say though we have not met. Happy 2016 .
My Best Regards
Jayanth DN

Jayantha, so good to hear from you. Very few look beneath the stories to the beating heart of my books(which is good in some sense since I want the stories to be page-turning) but it’s always a delight to hear from readers who do. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and visiting this space. Much appreciated!

Dear Karan sir ,
I am just so much moved by your post..i followed a same road. I started meditating 6 yrs back. I learned concentration based meditation from. Brahmakumaris. I practised it and i truly became peaceful, patient and slowly I ws evolving towards awareness based meditation. I even enrolled for dat vipassana course but couldnt attend due to academic reasons.. being a post graduate trainee resident doctor in a busy pediatric hospital…hah you can imagine.. My duty schedule became so hectic that I almost stopped meditation with a disgust. Its almost 2 yrs that i left meditation and believe me its pathetic. I can realise whats happening inside but no control over that. I become nervous, over anxious sometimes, sometimes even i get angry cursing the situation..
The good thing is, ur mail coincided the time i thought i should resume my practise. I cant live without it. may be i m not able to do the vipassana course right now but i can restart..
A big thanks to you will be less.

Mandira, incredible, we’re seekers on the same path. I also started with vedanta, then it shifted by itself. Also agree with you on life without meditation–I feel the same way when I don’t meditate. Let’s keep each other honest in 2016!

Sir happy to read your ideas and practice on yoga. It’s an eye opener for me. Hope ill continue to learn many things through yoga and ill find a new Shinee in this new year…. Thanks a lot for sharing and educating to many people. Glad to be in your guidence. Wish you all the best for every steps you are going to take in this upcoming year. looking forward more information on yoga and expecting for your next novel.

I must say this is THE BEST MEDITATION GUIDE I have ever read. I practice meditation and also keep exploring lot of information on a regular basis. But when I saw this post in your newsletter, I knew that it’s going to be the best because I totally love the way you share all your wisdom with honesty and simplicity and most importantly the way you know how bewildering mindfulness marketplace is. Immense Gratitude to you.

Dear Karan, thanks a ton for your reply and appreciations. I have one question and I am sure you are the best person to help me with this coz I hardly find the right answer to it.

Most of the advice I get so far that when I practice Meditation and Sun Salutation in the Morning, my stomach has to be empty. Though I followed it but at times, I feel very hungry. I checked with many experienced meditators and they say it should be done in empty stomach only. While a Nutritionist friend of mine suggested me not to stay hungry for long and advice to eat something before it.

Can you please guide me on this coz I find many people around me facing the same issue.

Ajay man, my rule of thumb in do what feels right for you. And what feels right will keep evolving as your practice deepens. So eat a little, then do it, as you keep meditating, you’ll become more conscious of your body and its impact on your mind–and you’ll change accordingly. It’s going to be great, man!

Hie karan,
This was quite helpfull….
I do meditate but this post re assures me what iam doing is right.
Esp the point where u said start noting down ur thoughts and as u concentrate they vanish.(this noting down of thoughts will be helpfull).
Otherwise at times a thought works like a dog sniffing on ground….he just follows his nose (thoughts here)and he doesnt realise where he lands up…:):).and everytime with a new thought i tend to stray away…….probably witnessing it as a thought shall keep me grounded.
Thanks for ur article.
Regards
Kunal

Hi Karan,
An amazing amazing guide!! Not only informative but also inspiring.

I need a little clarification on one of the things you mentioned in the guide.For awareness-based meditation,you suggested to let the thoughts come,note them and they will pass.But having tried this kind of medidation earlier myself,I have noted that the thoughts that come during the meditation do not pass even if I note them.Instead,I tend to dwell more and more on the same thought.

Kindly enlighten me how can I let the thoughts pass(a few suggestions maybe?)

And sorry for such a huge comment.I know you are busy man and I am eating a big chunk of your time making you read this.But a long post deserves a long comment?eh!

Parul, I’d say try concentration based meditation for a bit-I think you may do better with that. Other than that, I’d say as you are dwelling, just note “I’m dwelling” and you’ll dwell less. Good luck!

Awesome article KARAN , very helpful , I am exactly going through what you wrote, two lives, running , thinking this is meditation, feeling empty at times. Have tried meditating with a mantra but wasn’t regular with that but surely now would follow your advice … And yes I am big admirer of you read all your books and look up to you for inspiration thanks !!

Hello Karan Sir,
I already feel so calm and serene after reading your post. You are doing a great work encouraging people to conquer themselves by way of meditation. I too practice meditation almost everyday for atleast 20 minutes in the morning and the results are wonderful. I’m knowing myself more and more. For the past 4-5 months, I am more positive, patient, and concentration has also improved immensely.
Also, Sir I wish to spend few days in the Himalayas and practice meditation. Can you please recommend me an ashram where I can learn more and improve my technique regarding the same.

In an era where everything is commercial to the core including yoga and meditation, your post is a true sigh of relief. It highlights what true mediation should be all about and how everyone can start doing it. Absolutely love the way you laid it out – step by step and super simple.

I have been contemplating about starting this practice for a while now and it is one of my 2016 goals , but havent started it yet. Now after reading this post and relating to the “two lives part ” , it makes more sense than ever to finally start this practice.

Thanks for your honest approach to this and as you said lets make 2016 more honest than the past years.

Thank you for this post. It seems that this post came to me at the right time in my life as I am seeking peace and clarity in my life at the present time. Sometimes the idea of meditation can be overwhelming (which seems ironic, lol) but I understand why the hardest part is starting. Your post really lays out a practical explanation -which doesn’t feel as overwhelming. Thanks again!

Dear Karan,
Great post. Thank you. I have read a lot of books and articles about meditation has had a profound influence in one’s life. I am very much in a primitive stage in this area of life and have not even taken a small step in that direction, though I very badly wanted to. My own doubts and being self conscious are the hurdles I feel that is pulling me behind. Your post was an eye-opener in the real sense.
Best wishes for your efforts,
Jayaprabha.

Hi Karan,
I read your post more than once and I must say that I loved it. I am planning to begin meditation and I guess I came across this post at the right time. The beauty of your post is that one can easily correlate himself/herself to it.
Thanks again for posting this and all the very best in all your future endeavors.

Hi Karan,
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I have been trying to concentrate on my breath since 2013 daily for atleast for 2 hrs per day till mid 2015. I have a tremendous rush of thoughts right from the 1st second till the end of 2nd hour. I also suffer from very severe ocd due to which I sat in my room for 7 yrs. Now i just started my career in a job but there are many complaints for my slower pace. Will I have to still sit and try to concentrate on my breath as there is no option to get into meditative state without having trained the mind for highly developed concentration. Also I am in extremely acute state of anxiety for every second of my day.

Dear Karan – I hv read the seeker twice. It is my go to book when my heart yearns for a validity … I found your above post helpful. I am novice and cannot wait to start. Will let you know in 6 months …

First of all, a big thank you for creating “The Seeker”. I didn’t read this book intentionally. I feel it came to me, it had to. One of my good friend of friend, not very much close, is a voracious reader. She reads most of the good book and always recommends on facebook and I never pay attention. While she was reading “The Seeker”, she posted some glimpses of it. I never paid attention. But once she finished this book, she posted “a makeover of life” and described those 3 lines on the back cover. It was enticing and its like I was asked to read it ASAP by some unknown vibe. No doubt this will always be precious book to me. I’m so much grateful to have read this book. Since then I’m taking little steps towards meditation. I never knew that you have this website and blog as well. I’m just blessed with baby boy and I wish to inherit this wealth to him for better, for to be stronger, rich in values and honesty.

This blog has given me a true direction towards meditation. I went to many meditation workshops, meditation centres, yoga teachers, all in vain. May be I’m a bad student. But still something should strike. When I was reading The Seeker, you hit that bulls eye and you ignited that something very hidden inside me. New York or Pune, Atlanta or Kolhapur, I witness similar symptoms that Max have initially before starting his journey.

Reading this blog, I exactly got the direction as where to head ahead. I’ll keep you posted.

Shantanu, what a lovely message. Readers like you are what any author writes for–I’m very moved by how much The Seeker impacted you. You’re in the same life-stage as me with a young family so look forward to keep learning things together.

Life is good. I had been planning on spending a couple hundred dollars to learn how to meditate online. I don’t have the time to attend classes so thought something at my own pace would work. Thank you for keeping it simple and real. If I had more questions or wanted more info who/what are some recommended resources?

I found you on Quora and stumbled upon this great meditation space you’ve created for likeminded people. I’ve been wanting to start meditation from long but never got that starting point as to how and when. After reading this I feel inspired and it will be really nice if you can share more about your knowledge with our women audience@ whatSHElikes. in

hi karan,
i believe that ”Yoga is the answer to all kind of Questions” arising in our mind.
whether they are spiritual of any other kind of.
same as you mentioned above Patangali yoga sutra, Doing poses of yoga brings your mind in mediation.

Thank you for sharing, Karan. It is so refreshing to read your article, because it is handing power back to the individual. Books and knowledge helps one to get clarification as well as answers, but it is only when you make the decision to take charge and do the discipline will there be change. To be not caught in the moments of highs and lows is the key to living in peace and bliss.
Looking forward to reading your latest book, it is on it’s way.
❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽

Hey there, I just read your article and I just totally love it 😉 Actually, I am also running a meditation blog. I was wondering if we both can share links with each other as it will help us in better ranking. Here is a link to my website and I sure you will love it 😉

hello sir,
i tried meditating earlier. i try to see sai baba image between my eyebrow area. but i am not able to hold this image even for a second. again i bring the image and again it goes. you were saying to concentrate on an image . this means we will see that image with our closed eyes and then where we have to concentrate on that image- means face, whole image. pls guide

It was great reading your article. I learned meditation from Ashram. As per them , One can gain activation of third eye(Pineal gland) by grace of Sad guru. Initially I was not convinced however wanted to try out as they claimed I can see and experience my soul through meditation by grace of Guru. They called me for Gyan Vidhi (in which they teach Meditation). It was three hour session and during the end of session I found my self in deep meditation.I saw galaxy of stars and ring of light and there was star inside that ring of light. I was feeling absolute bliss. it was very real and then they wake me from meditation. Since then I try to get into same state however I could not reach there. I took guidance from Ashram people , they say I could see that due to grace of Sadguru and now I have reach there by regular meditation. Its been two years now, I am not a regular with meditation, I some time experience a faint light however feel I am not yet progressed.
I feel I should get up at 4 AM in morning to meditate however fail to do so due to my laziness.

Hello Karan,
I am happy that i came across your blogs and posts, very inspiring and very thought provoking too. I need your help in overcoming my problem. Though i say i have been practicing meditation for nearly 10 years now it has never been consistent. The moment i realise and start seeing slightest of difference i leave the practice and catch hold of it when i need the most. and this cycle has been going on for quite long….

i know meditation is very important but due to overconfidence i leave it. i am unable to break this pattern. can you please help me. Thanks in advance.

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I am Karan Bajaj, bestselling novelist and striving Yogi. Born and raised in the Indian Himalayas, I now live and work in New York. In this space, I share my attempts to live a Yogic life in the heart of the material world.
I can be reached at karan[at]karanbajaj.com